Coping
by Ki-hori-e-te-ao
Summary: Usopp gets caught in a fight with the marines and he only has one means of coping.


**Warning: Very explicit description of torture, read at your own risk. Setting is after two year timeskip, but no specific details or spoilers mentioned.**

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><p>"Where is Mugiwara no Luffy?" The woman behind him queries, voice deathly soft.<p>

Gulping loudly, Usopp closed his eyes, tense in horrid anticipation. Breathing loudly he flexes his bleeding and scarred wrist, listening to the audible clatter of his shackles. The sound was one of the only things reminding him that he is alive, that there is more to life than this damp cellar. That he once lived above this six-floored hell dubbed Impel Down.

Breath hoarse and low, he begins his story.

"In a small island miles and miles away-"

Skin meets leather and he winces, biting his lip and waiting for the ensuing pain.

"What have you been doing these past two years?" Her voice is filled with annoyance.

He grits his teeth and continues.

"There lived an amazing hero, who- Ahh," the scream is caught in his throat as five other lashes accompany the initial two.

Seven bleeding wounds adorn his bruised and grimy back, blood racing down and out of white, fleshy pools. It entangles with older, yellowing and pus-filled wounds. White scars gleam and once upon a time, his back was flawless.

"Tell me you long-"

He shouts out the next line, even as his lungs tighten in protest and his tongue fumbles across the once familiar words.

"Who gave hope to the hopeless! " Usopp bites his lip and tears pool in his eyes and blood runs down his face, while confusion messes with his mind, ", his name is Sogeking! Born on sniper island- Kuso!- Be it an e-eye," he's gasping heavily at this point, ignoring whatever is leaving his captors mouth," or a heart, Sogeking's precise aim could shoot anything!"

Arms that once housed muscles, writhe in despair and deep screams engulf the cold torture chamber as scalding water is poured on his back. Excruciating pain controls him as he thrashes, more minor and scabbed wounds meeting the burning acidic water.

He thinks to himself, to avoid passing out from pain._ Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook. _Usopp thinks, because if he didn't, he might stop telling the story and if he stops before the ending, then his nakama might get in trouble. So he thinks until he remembers the story.

Then ragged breaths leave the nineteen-year-olds mouth and dark eyes, glazed over, gaze unseeing at stone wars.

A smug smirk works its way on Misako's face as she watches the pirate scum, indulging in his low grunts and calls of pain.

Three minutes pass, of soft caresses on his back meant to tease not comfort, soft finger nails digging into white pus-dripping wounds and scraping his back. Usopp whimpers, but soon he'd be able to talk, he can feel it.

"Now, Sogeking...Just what are you Mugiwara no Ichimi scum planning?"

Misako finishes the soft question with a flick of her lighter. She lights a cigarette and after a moments pause, lets the bare flame of her lighter kiss his back and lick his gaping wounds. Her lips puff out the smoke and a name tickles his mind as he inhales the odorous scent of tobacco. The name of the cook of the crew that he'd never let into her cruel hands. His heart turns to steel.

The sound of clanking shackles keeps Usopp from losing his mind- losing his will. Clamping his eyes shut, he breathes deeply in spite of all the pain- in spite of the insanity slowly planting itself into his mind.

Lanky legs convulse in pain and bones stick out as his back arches.

Finally he screams out another line in the familiar story. How his lungs screech in protest.

"Why, the great Sogeking could even shoot love into the unlov-Ack!"

Usopp's cheek bruises quickly and his jaw stings with pain. More blood, metallic in taste, runs like rivulets down his face.

"You bastard! Stop screwing around, I don't have the time nor patience to put up with your bullshit!" Misako's face is the epitome of furious as she nurses her bruised fist.

"The unloveable," he bites out as burning tears run down his face.

Ablaze with fury, she stands before him and repeatedly kissed his abdomen with her harsh steel-tied boots. Unable to talk above whisper, he croaks out the rest of the story as she unleashes her frustrations upon him.

"He took down three Seakings with one shot,"

The kicks turn into cigarette burns as her cigarette cinders danced across his skin in thick lumps. Where there was once grime, clear and red blistered raised, while some skin shrivelled up at the contact.

"While all eight thousand loyal followers he had watched in awe,"

Suddenly she's straggling him and he can barely form a coherent sentence and words are a loss to his dazed mind. Her grip is tight, black spots invade his vision and a lump forms in his throat.

"'En quest-...ed o' wh-... Why he b-b-be-"

One of the prison guards tears her fingers from his neck and throws him down carelessly. His chains clank and with tears running down his eyes and past his long nose, he manages to breath out an ending.

Pain, wicked, wretched pain overrides his pride and his voice is just above whisper. Blank eyes gaze at stone walls, dreaming of salt and air and happy endings.

"-Became a brave warrior of the sea, he always answered, because my nakama needed me."

Soft sobs consume his emaciated form, while he shudders and cries himself into oblivion.

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><p><strong>No reason on why I made this, I mean originally this idea came from me imagining a bloodied and beat up Usopp grinning at Luffy and saying I knew you'd come. Then you know, the story stuffed up and asked Zoro for directions, as expected, the plot got lost and this happened. Anyway, if you're reading this, thanks for the enduring this literal torture session. I.e, thanks for reading.<strong>


End file.
